“Pearl” and “High Tide”

Someone new arrives
No good captured in their eyes
With the pain — a prize.

***

High Tide—after Gwynn Murrill’s “Clam”

When the world doesn’t see you
You hide yourself away

When the world won’t hear you
You have nothing to say

When the world can’t feel you
You stratify your shell

When the world doesn’t inspire you
You inflame your own hell

When the world can’t stomach you
You descend deeper in the sand

When the tide is high
I’ll take your hand.

***

Sunnee Crider is a writer studying Engineering Sciences at CSU Bakersfield. In addition to writer and student she is a fiancé, dog-mom of two, and granddaughter to June Bedford with whom she had her first poems published in her memoir, A Great Family Tree with Help.